film characters The Top 10 Best Movie Anti-Heroes

So you've found yourself rooting for a violent murderer with a nefarious past and a thing for making homemade soap? Don't worry, that's completely normal. At least when it comes to these timeless anti-heroes and the movies they helped make great.

Everyone in LA Confidential

In Curtis Hanson's brilliant adaptation of James Ellroy's equally brilliant novel, Los Angeles in the 1950's would be a very lonely place were it not for all the anti-heroes. Good cops who compromise their integrity for professional gain, corrupt cops who only do the right thing after it's too late, and a dangerously violent man whose softer side doubles as his hair trigger, not to mention the rape victim who changes her testimony to exact revenge, or the hooker with a heart of gold... when it suits her. There are no angels in L.A. Confidential, only devils with good intentions, and together they all deserve the top spot on this list.

Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver

Travis Bickle, 26, lives in New York in the mid-1970’s and, for one reason or another (a tour of duty in Vietnam is mentioned), is incapable of making any genuine human connection. His attempts to assimilate into society are thwarted by his own point of view, skewed by the constant interaction with New York’s seediest citizen through his work as, you guessed it, a taxi driver. When his best chance at love falls apart when he thinks Swedish sex films are a typical date night activity (they are, just not with a nice girl like Cybil Shepard), he violently turns on the New Yorkers (indeed, New York itself) he once sought, ineffectually, to embrace. As Bickle gradually transforms into the worst kind of antihero, his grasp on reality slipping away with each line of dialogue, he also becomes the very best: Travis Bickle is the worst case scenario of every lonely soul, and frankly that’s all of us.

Tyler Durden in Fight Club

The definition of charisma, Tyler Durden is effortlessly sexy, promoting a lifestyle of angsty rebellion that appealed to an entire generation. By preaching a life of humorous insight and casual violence, he turned an extra-curricular activity into a doomsday cult before anyone even noticed. By the end of the film, Ed Norton may be convinced that Durden has gone too far, but the audience isn’t. Brad Pitt’s performance, combined with David Fincher’s obvious love for the character, make Tyler Durden the most lovable terrorist of all.

The Stranger in High Plains Drifter

At the beginning of High Plains Drifter, The Stranger walks into town, played by the always heroic Clint Eastwood, and proceeds to murder several men for being annoying and rape a woman for sassing back. And somehow in the mining settlement of Lago, that makes him the "Good" guy. Eastwood’s Western persona was the perfect fit for a hero dispensing righteousness through utter immorality. Never before has contempt for your fellow man felt so completely justified.

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